Three years ago I was assigned to take photos of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney visiting the new Banner Health Cardon Children's Medical Center in Mesa. The only thing I knew about him was that he tried for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. When he arrived there was only myself and one other photographer. Still, he was fairly comfortable in close quarters with the few cameras that were there. He was very charismatic, but also really slick. Almost like an actor playing a politician. Also, he was really nice. One of the neat things this job is it allows you to meet athletes, politicians and celebrities before they’re famous. You never know where they may end up.

I usually look for emotions when I shoot photos whether it’s joy in the face of an outfielder after making a diving catch or the eyes of a grieving mother. I believe that if you see the eyes of your subject, you can connect with the picture. When Coheed and Cambria took the stage, opening for Iron Maiden, there was no face to be seen! When I shot this photo, it put a smile on my face and brought back memories of Cousin It (Adams Family)!

I was assigned to get photos for a recent Valley and State story on the recent cases of people going missing and dying while hiking in the Superstition Mountains. We were hoping to get some photos of people hiking. I decided to go to the First Water Trailhead in the Superstition Wilderness Area, where a man was recently found dead a mile and a half from the trailhead. With temperatures well above 100 degrees I knew there was a good chance there would be no one at the often popular hiking trail. As expected there was not a soul to be found when I arrived in the parking lot. After making some photos of a picture of the man who recently died that was taped up at the trailhead with the words "Rest in Peace Brother Kenny", I decided to go for a walk myself. I spent the remaining light of the day walking and taking scenic photos of rugged and beautiful landscapes. It was these kinds of walks that got me excited in photography in the first place over 20 years ago.

I've recently been playing around with weather related time lapse videos, and about a month ago, I was chatting with KPNX videographer Lynn French. She asked what I had coming up. "Oh, we're doing a shoot of finger foods, and I'm going to pick up some model people for model railroads (they're tiny but look realistic, unlike things like Lego people), and I want to make the small food look massive." She thought it sounded interesting, and said it would be a good time to shoot one of my time lapse videos.

My inspiration was The Little People Project, by Slinkachu. I saw some of his prints in 2007, and I'd always thought this would be a cool think to try for a shoot sometime. He has done two books, and has a great website, which you can see here.

This was definitely a case where I needed to plan ahead, so I storyboarded the video out, and made sure I had all the shots I needed. I set up cameras to shoot me editing at home, and I also made a bunch of screen captures of editing one photo so the final video would have a quick progression of an image going from a raw file to a final jpeg.

When I was first learning video, I heard a saying "TV without video is radio; TV without audio is a surveilance camera." So I needed good audio to put with the time lapses. I found a great background track that also happened to be the perfect time. The last step was recording myself to just introduce the video.

Tyler Goldenberg, 17, practices for the 2012 World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando. The Phoenix teen, who runs through his routine 10 to 20 times a day, is ranked No. 12 in the nation and hopes to place in the top 50 at the world contest. Laying on the floor and shooting straight up was the best angle to capture him practicing.

The worst heat wave of the summer hit the Valley the second week of August where we experienced four days of record breaking temperatures in a row and seven days in a row where the temperatures did not dip below 90 degrees. All of this meant that myself and a number of other Arizona Republic photographers were tirelessly driving around the Valley looking for photos to illustrate the heat. As oppresive as 115 degree temperatures can be it is not sometjing that is overtly obvious in a visual sense. The above photographs are from a number of the Republic photographers doing what they can to illustrate the heat.

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